This collection of papers examines key ideas in cultural-historical approaches to children’s learning and development and the cultural and institutional conditions in which they occur. The collection is given coherence by a focus on the intellectual contributions made by Professor Mariane Hedegaard to understandings of children’s learning through the prism of the interplay of society, institution and person. She has significantly shaped the field through her scholarly consideration of foundational concepts and her creative attention to the fields of activity she studies. The book brings together examples of how these concepts have been employed and developed in a study of learning and development. The collection allows the contributing scholars to reveal their reactions to Hedegaard’s contributions in discussions of their own work in the field of children’s learning and the conditions in which it occurs.

Anne Edwards is Professor Emerita at the University of Oxford Department of Education and a Fellow of St Hilda’s College. Employing cultural-historical theory, her research examines professional learning in the helping professions. She focuses on the relational turn in expertise and the concepts of relational expertise, common knowledge and relational agency. These concepts also inform her work on user engagement with research. Laureate Professor Marilyn Fleer holds the Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education and Development at Monash University, Australia. She was awarded the 2018 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship by the Australian Research Council and is a former President of the International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research (ISCAR). Additionally, she is an honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, and has a second professor position at the KINDKNOW Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.Louise Bøttcher is an Associate Professor at the Danish School of Education and is associated with the research programme Future Technology, Culture and Learning. Taking cultural-historical activity theory and developmental neuropsychology as starting points, her research is aimed at understanding the development of children and adolescents with disabilities.